- "You know, um, when you took off your mask, I never in a million years expected it to be you, someone like me. I'm glad it was."
- —Parker Torres to Kate Kane[src]
Parker Torres is a student of Gotham Prep and reformed cyberterrorist. After being disowned by her parents for being a lesbian, she took on the moniker Terrier and blackmailed every citizen of Gotham City for their secrets, leading to her encountering Batwoman and Alice. Batwoman eventually revealed her true identity and sexuality to Parker, becoming her role model. She was later let off for her crimes in exchange for community service.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Parker was born to an unnamed man and an unnamed woman in Gotham City and raised in a fairly conservative family. Due to her upbringing, she was reluctant to come out to her parents as a lesbian.
In Parker's teenage years, she attended Gotham Preparatory High School and began a secret relationship with a classmate, Kayla Mason. However, the two disagreed on Parker's decision to keep her sexuality in the dark, resulting in her breaking up with Kayla when the latter refused to understand her reasonings. In retaliation, Kayla outed Parker to her parents, causing them to disown her.[1]
Billion-dollar scheme[]
Parker in the train.
Hurt by her parents' abandonment, a desperate Parker decided to use any means necessary to gain their sympathy. First, she hacked a subway train she was riding in, hoping her parents would focus on the fact Parker almost died rather than their homophobia towards her. Batwoman managed to stop the runaway train.
Using her hacking abilities and the moniker "terrier", Parker sent out a message to the entirety of Gotham using an avatar with her distorted voice. She attempted to blackmail the citizens of Gotham with the release of their secrets in exchange for $5 billion, planning to use the money to leave the city. When Mayor Akins held a conference to address Terrier's threats, Parker hacked his transmission and released the mayor's credit card member, demonstrating the consequences if her demands weren't met.
Batwoman later paid a visit to Gotham Prep upon learning the Terrier’s identity was a female student there. Parker was presumably amongst those present at the school's Winter Formal when they witnessed Batwoman suddenly appear and demand the Terrier to identify herself. With Parker choosing to say silent and the costumed vigilante not getting much help from the surrounding attendees, Batwoman deployed a device that disabled the power of almost every electronic device in the vicinity, causing a blackout. However, Parker’s own phone remained active since she installed a protective firewall. She then ran away from the scene, unnoticed by her fellow students in the darkness. Unbeknownst to Parker, Batwoman tracked Parker's phone and began following her just as the power came back on.
Parker surprised to discover that Batwoman is a lesbian.
A distressed Parker made her way to the girls' restroom, worried at the realization that her antics as the Terrier drew upon herself the attention of Gotham’s premier vigilante. Batwoman then arrived in the bathroom and began approaching Parker. Although clearly nervous, Parker tried to project some image of courage, inquiring what business Batwoman has with her, a student in a dance full of other students. Batwoman tried to talk Parker down, asking what compelled her into enacting her scheme to leave Gotham and everything there behind her and reprimanding her actions. A hurt Parker brushed Batwoman off, lamenting in tears how her world fell apart after she was outed against her wishes to her parents.
As Parker rushed out, she encountered Alice, who succeeded at subduing Batwoman and did the same to Parker, hitting her in the head, when she attempted to run past. Alice explained she needed Parker for her own agenda.
Not one hour later, Parker woke up chained in her school's workshop, where Alice revealed she planned to use Parker's hacking skills to out Kate Kane as Batwoman so they could finally be sisters. Parker, however, refused to out Kate the same way she was and instead tipped off law enforcement about Alice's location and the C-4 bomb the latter planted at the school dance. To cover for her actions, Parker only messaged both Kate and Alice's phones to give the false impression that Batwoman's identity was exposed. Alice then quickly set Parker free, allowing her to escape while Kate dealt with her.
The next day, Parker went to see Kate at Wayne Enterprises, promising to keep her identity a secret. Kate signed Parker to 150 hours of community service cleaning the city's graffiti to pay for her crimes. Kate also offered her condolences to the young girl's ordeals, for which Parker thanked her. Later, Parker read an article in CatCo Magazine detailing Batwoman coming out as a lesbian, making her smile.[1]
Following this incident, Parker and her parents (or at least her mother) made amends with each other.[2]
Temporary job[]
Parker kidnapped by Tommy Elliot.
One day after school, Parker was on the phone with her new girlfriend, Gina, when she rounded a corner to see Hush pointing his guns at her. Binding her, Hush threw Parker in a van and began driving her to Arkham Asylum. While inside, Parker realized that Hush needed her for whatever he had planned or else the bandaged serial killer would have murdered her already. Fortunately, Batwoman intervened and rescued Parker.
Parker and Mary Hamilton eavesdrop on Kate and Sophie Moore.
The two went to the Batcave, much to the disapproval of Mary Hamilton; Kate wanted Parker's computer skills as tech support for the Bat Team because Kate refused to apologize for her and Luke's argument. When Sophie Moore arrived at Wayne Tower to talk to Kate, Parker, with Mary, eavesdropped on the two's love lives.
Parker used her skills by modifying the computers in the Batcave to find a professor that Tommy had abducted, leading Kate to Arkham to ultimately free Luke Fox from captivity. When Kate returned with Luke, Parker left, after advising her to be with Sophie.[2]
Personality[]
Due to being a closeted lesbian, Parker was afraid to come out to her parents who were disapproval to LGBT+ individuals. However, when Parker's ex-girlfriend broke up with her and revealed her sexuality to her parents, Parker was deeply hurt by ex-girlfriend's betrayal and being disowned by her parents.
Wanting to escape her pain, Parker became a cyberterrorist where she threatened Gotham City into giving her large amounts of money so she can escape her parents. Parker was even going through such lengths to get what she wanted, such as hacking a train to make it crash. However, Parker's reasons for committing crimes were to escape the misery she suffered due to being outed as a lesbian.
When Parker was confronted by Batwoman for her crimes, she revealed her reasons for committing her crimes and coldly rejected any of Batwoman's attempts to help her out. However, when captured by Alice where Batwoman revealed her secret identity as Kate Kane, Parker was shocked as she knew Kate was a lesbian like herself and regretted being mean to her. When Parker was threatened by Alice to reveal Kate's identity as Batwoman to Gotham, Parker refused to do so as she knew how much Batwoman meant to the city and did not want Kate to be outed the same way she was outed.
After being saved by Batwoman, Parker promised Kate to keep her identity a secret and was willing to do community service for her crimes. She even admitted to Kate that she never expected someone like her to be a superhero and was glad to discover that. This prompted Kate to have Batwoman come out to the public as a lesbian to inspire people like Parker. Parker's interactions with Batwoman also led her to start building up her life again where she started to mend her relationships with her parents and gain a new girlfriend.
Abilities[]
- Genius-level intellect/Computer specialist/Expert computer hacker: Parker is a highly intelligent individual, an excellent hacker and former cyberterrorist. Parker was able to hack into the internal computers on the Gotham City's trains, besides being able to hack the mayor's speech live.
Appearances[]
Batwoman[]
Season 1[]
Trivia[]
- Parker is so far the youngest individual to know Batwoman's true identity and become her ally.
- Her family is implied to be religious, as Parker mentioned that her parents carried rosaries after finding out she was gay.[1]
- Parker is interestingly among the very few people Alice seems to genuinely like.[2]
- Parker had two love interests in the series: Kayla Mason and Gina. She was also attracted to Sophie Moore, having to be told off by Mary Hamilton that Kate and Sophie used to date.[2]